Preparing for Reality
by Sunnystar-12
Summary: Lilys parents die at the end of her 5th year, over the summer Voldemort casts a speel on her that causes Liyl to becoem deathly ill and miss her 6th year at Hogwarts. Its all lumped together! Tried re-loading it, didn't work. Anyone know how to fix it?


Chapter One  
  
  
  
"Lily?!?!" James yelled over the crowd at platform 9 ¾. He had spotted the knockout from a distance, and was very anxious to see her. She heard her name being called and looked around to see who was calling her. Her jaw nearly dropped when she set her eyes on a now dazzling man of 17. "James?" She asked cautiously. They were now weaving their way through the crowd, trying to reach each other as quickly as possible. Finally, their goal was achieved. "I can't believe its really you," Lily said to James all to truthfully. She hugged him very tightly. James gratefully returned the hug, noticing the strength of this still young beauty. "How long has it been?" "Oh, the last I saw you was the end of 5th year, so a little over a year," she responded sadly. "Too long." He gripped her into a brotherly hug. "I missed you Lily." "Same to you," Lily's eyes were glistening with tears. They were still embraced in a sibling like hug, when Lily heard yet another voice from the past. "Tiger!?" James and Lily broke apart to see a grinning Sirius. "Looking pretty good there foxy," he winked at her. Sirius was always saying stuff like that to Lily, and it always made her blush. "I missed ya kiddio," Sirius was always like a father to Lily, scary as it was to admit it. "Missed you too Padfoot," Lily also embraced Sirius in a hug. "So how's it been Lily?" Sirius asked his friend compassionately. "Oh.tough is the easiest way to put it. I'd rather only tell you all once, so I'll wait for Remus to get here," she spoke with a slightly saddened face, remembering just how hard the past year or so had been. "What about Remus?" Remus asked cheerfully. Lily's face brightened again as she turned around to see her good old pal. "Moony!" She quickly made him another recipient of her hug, which Remus gladly returned. "Missed you Tiger," Remus kissed Lily gently on the cheek. "Missed you too Remie," she paused for a moment of contemplation, "I missed everyone, but escipally you guys. SO what did you three do last year that I'd be interested in knowing about?" They all filled Lily in on their pranks, numbers of detentions, quidditch injuries, and any other worth knowing event. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you, James was made head boy." Sirius had a wicked glint in his eye. "Oh man, the whole of Hogwarts is in trouble," Remus commented. He already knew James was appointed head boy, but it still slightly surprised him, "Our only hope is that the head girl is decent." "What's your definition of decent?" Lily asked evilly. "Depends, why?" Remus asked. "Let's just say, I know something you don't know," Lily replied in a singsong voice. "No way! You, Lily, are-are you." Sirius couldn't quite make out the words to finish his question. "I'm head girl!" Lily said grinning broadly. "Congratulations!" Remus said to her. He thought about the possibilities of having James and Lily being in charge of the school, and couldn't help but get a little scared. "Be afraid, be very afraid," James commented, as if he could read Remus' mind. "No offense Lily, but how did you get to be head girl?" James wondered out loud. When he got to thinking about it, Lily hadn't been there last year, so how could they have appointed her? By all means, she definitely deserved the position, as she did have top marks, was an excellent quidditch player (greatly missed by the Gryffindor quidditch team I might add), and just an all around great person, but it still didn't make total sense to James. "Well, when you get right down to it, there are only around 20 girls in our year. Seven in ravenclaw, six in hufflepuff and Slytherin, and then of course me, in gryffindor, so that immediately cuts down some competition, as there are less girls than usual in our year. Then you look at the fact that no one but a gryffindors actually deserves to be head of anything.." Lily played around with her friends. She had actually seriously thought about how she had been made head girl after being corrupted for the previous 6 years by James, Remus, and Sirius, but she wasn't one to complain about good things that came to her. "Not to interrupt you guys or anything, but its time to get on the train," said a fellow Gryffindor, David McFarland. "Thanks Dave, these dunderheads wouldn't have realized it was time to go and I would've missed yet another school year." "No problem Li-," David did a double-take when he realized who he was talking to, "Lily?" "The one and only," Sirius answered for her. "Wow, its great to have you back, Gryffindor tower wasn't the same for us 7th years without our little sister around." It was a joke between all the current 7th year Gryffindors that Lily was their little sister, as there was 7 of them and only one girl in their year, Lily. "Great to be back. We'd all best be getting on the train now though, I'll see you around." "Come on guys, let's go the head boy/girl compartment, you guys can come with us," James told them. Once they were all settled and on their way to Hogwarts, James' curiosity got the better of him. "Not to pry Lils, but how was last year?" James asked compassionately. She sighed and then carefully thought of how to respond. "Let's see, where do I start," she talked to herself outloud, "first off, as I assume you know, my parents died towards the end of last year." Hurt showed in all of their eyes, as Lily's parents were great people. After a brief moment of silence, Lily continued, "well anyway, over the summer my sister Petunia turned 18.and left me alone. So I just stayed alone in my house up until about July. One day, my Aunt called me.." "Called you?" Sirius asked puzzled. "Muggle thing," James replied. "Wow James, you really were paying attention in Muggle studies, weren't you?" Remus joked. "So anyway," Lily continued," my aunt called me and asked if I would like to come stay with her the rest of the summer, and I agreed. Basically, I ended up baby-sitting her 7 year old son the majority of the time, but it was something to do." "But Lily, why weren't you at school?" Remus asked. "Patience, I'm getting there." "Sorry," Remus blushed slightly. "Around the middle of August I kinda got sick..like really sick," her friends jaws dropped. "Lily, how serious?" James asked concerned. "Let's just say I'm lucky to be here today, or even on earth. No muggle doctor could figure out what was wrong with me, so my aunt took em to a wizard doctor. There they said someone had cast a spell on me that would act like a typical virus, and the odds of me living were only 1 in 4..so there were a lot of things I had to be careful of, and still do actually." "That's really serious," Remus said flabbergasted. Not as serious as me," Sirius felt a need to add some humor to the dark mood that had taken over the compartment. "But um..where was I. Oh yeah, so I was at home recovering for most of last year. I was left slightly thinner and weaker, and just a lot of not good things. I've really got to be careful now though." Lily stopped, she knew what question was probably pondering in the back of her friends' minds, who cast the spell on Lily. " I know you guys are probably wondering this, so I might as well answer you, Voldemort is the one who cast the spell. They did a tracing charm on it and it was linked directly back to him. What he wants to do with me, I don't know for sure..but I will let you know whatever he wants I don't intend on letting him get it from me." "That's the spirit Lily." "Sorry guys, but I'm going to put my robes on now." "We'll go with you." James said with a wink. "haha, very funny." Lily called behind her back before leaving the compartment. When she was out of earshot, the boys began talking about her. "So that's pretty scary, what happened to her I mean." Remus stated plainly. "Yeah, really," Sirius replied, "I'm just glad she made it. What would life be like without Lily? I mean, wed live...we did last year, but I sure as hell missed that girl." "Me too," Remus said. He then noticing James hadn't said anything yet. "James? What's up?" "I just, I just can't believe that we're you know.we're really growing up. I mean, I remember when we all first met each other and the three of us were fighting over who was gonna be head boy, and here we are 7 years later, about to enter the real world. Not to mention that there's a dark wizard lurking around the wizarding world that happened to cast a spell almost costing our best friend her life. It's just kinda scary." Remus and Sirius were slightly surprised to see James so deep in thought about something, it was a rarity. "Yeah," Remus and Sirius both mumbled. The compartment was filled with silence until broken by an angelic voice. "Did ya miss me?" Lily joked, looking around to see the slightly serious expression on her surrounding friends' faces. "Guys?" They all looked up and met her beautiful eyes, "you all OK?" "Yeah, we're fine," Remus stated plainly. "Right." Lily didn't quite believe them, but it was better to leave sleeping dogs lye. "We're here!" 


End file.
